This disclosure relates to an automobile headrest.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical construction for a car headrest 100 includes a support rod 110 (e.g., a metal rod) that is partially embedded in a foam pad 112, which is then wrapped with a cover layer 114 (e.g., fabric). The support rod 110 includes a U-shaped portion 116 that is embedded in the foam pad 112 and which serves as the main structural element of the headrest 100. Free end portions 118 of the support rod 110 extend outwardly from the foam pad 112 and serve as features for releasably attaching the headrest 110 to a seat back. In such configurations, the single support rod 110 desirably serves as a simple, inexpensive solution for providing both structural support as well as an attachment means for the headrest 100.
In some cases, speakers have been integrated into car headrests often by attaching the speakers to the U-shaped support bar. U.S. Pat. No. 8,130,987 to Kaneda et al. is an example of such a headrest in which speakers are mounted to the left and right sides of a pad and are coupled to a U-shaped support rod via a stay.
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate another example of a headrest 200 that incorporates speakers 202. Referring to FIG. 2A, the speakers 202 are positioned to lay in a region that is directly behind the user's head (i.e., as opposed to the being located on the left and right sides of the U-shaped support rod 210) and to fire outwardly, in diverging directions on either side of the headrest 200. In this configuration, the U-shaped support rod 210 has additional curvature and is positioned closer to the top of the headrest 200 in order to accommodate the speakers 202 in the region that is to be directly behind the user's head.
A small plastic enclosure 211 is attached to each speaker for forming an acoustic enclosure. Each of those sub-assemblies then gets screwed into a sheet metal cage 212 which is secured to the U-shaped support rod 210. Then a molded piece of foam is placed around that assembly, which is subsequently covered with a cover material 214 (e.g., fabric or leather), and there are a pair of plastic covers 216 and grille pieces 218, for covering the speakers, that are off on either side of the headrest 210, as shown in FIG. 2B.